If you are passing through Cabot, Arkansas stop in and see our friends at Alford Tobacco located at 521 West Main Street. The owner, Judy Alford gives a thumbs-up for her new Touch Dynamic terminal with backOffice™ Software.

You haven’t, because they don’t yet exist. Read on to find out if the concept is something you should consider for your operation.

Advocacy cards. They don’t have quite the same ring as loyalty cards do, but maybe get used to the idea?

While advocacy cards are not a living, breathing thing, advocating for customers is fast becoming the new way retailers should approach customer relationship-building beyond simple loyalty efforts.

While a loyalty card program rewards consumers for quantity of goods and services bought, advocacy cards could go a step further to inform the qualitative aspect of the retailer-customer bond— rewarding shoppers who buy healthy foods, for example, with points, gift cards or other incentives.

Sounds like a daunting task for a retailer, but it’s one that all retail channels should think about.

Retailer advocacy for customers was discussed during the webinar “Top Food Trends for 2016.” Sponsored by The Food Institute and BMO Harris, the session was comoderated by Phil Lempert, known as the “SupermarketGuru,” and The Food Institute CEO Brian Todd.

In addition to citing consumers’ thirst for additional product information along with coming to grips that the “retail world is in flux,” Lempert said advocacy might be the new loyalty. In that spirit, “focus beyond relationships and think beyond loyalty to advocacy,” he said.

Your consumers are already vigilant when it comes to the food selection process—like vetting a political candidate. They abide by concepts of “free from” and “less is more,” the latter meaning products with five or fewer ingredients and no artificial ingredients. Foods labeled with health attributes saw sales increase 13%, said Lempert, citing the National Grocers Association-SupermarketGuru 2015 survey.

The broad picture: A new way of eating will be defined by new proteins, algae, insects, vegetable, yeast, cricket flour and nut powders. Rewarding your customers for participating in the trend could incentivize those higher-margin items, and earn you goodwill and higher sales in the process.

Insight Retail Software is proud to announce that it has completed installation of its first InsightRS/Reflection Point of Sale System at Green Grocer in Clifton Park, NY. Moorfield’s Green Grocer had been using an older ECR system and wanted an upgrade to something new. InsightRS chose to use the Touch Dynamic Breeze all-in-one terminal with its integrated touch monitor, rear-facing customer display and MSR.

Green Grocer also elected to use Mercury Payment Systems as its credit card processor along with MercuryGift™ for their Gift Cards and plan to use the MercuryLoyalty™ program soon.

The Green Grocer owners and employees are thrilled with the new system both in terms of its ease of use and performance. “We feel like we have finally moved into the 21st century” said Biorn, owner of the large and popular Organic Grocer and Health Food Store.

By day two the cashiers were completely comfortable with operating the new system. Since Green Grocer was already using backOffice™ Software, their management reports and back office functions continued with no change as they were able to use the same software as they did with their old POS Terminal.

InsightRS plans to roll out the new point of sale system to many of its customers in the near future.

InsightRS began development of its interface with NCC Reflection POS in January 2012 and is currently working with NCC to promote this system to their large dealer network across the US and around the world.

At RSPA RetailNow 2012 NCC announced the combination of their Reflection POS® V4.3 and backOffice™ Software from Insight Retail Software to their Dealer Network.

NCC, headquartered in Greenville, SC, has been delivering comprehensive management solutions to businesses in the retail industry since 1986. Their software engineers have combined years of experience in software development with a strong understanding of restaurant and retail operations to create products designed to work in a wide variety of environments.

Through a world-wide network of reseller partners, NCC has installed over 20,000 systems in more than 35 countries. For nearly a decade, Toshiba-TEC Corporation and its subsidiaries have distributed hospitality solutions developed by NCC. NCC products are installed in a wide range of retail concepts including Table Service, Quick Service, Fast Casual, Bars, Night Clubs, Delis, Frozen Yogurt, Delivery and Concessions. Recently, NCC was also excited to supply POS to Olympic Retailers for the London 2012 Olympics.

NCC’s Reflection POS® V4.3 for Retail just got even better with the addition of backOffice™ Software from Insight Retail Software. NCC and InsightRS now offer a GREAT POS, with a GREAT back-office resulting in a WINNING combination.

RetailNow2012 attendees were given an opportunity to see Reflection POS and backOffice™ Software working together. The product concept was very well received by attendees.

InsightRS would also like to send our congratulations to NCC for receiving the RSPA ‘Vendor Award of Excellence’ as an Outstanding Provider of Software. NCC’s excellent product, stellar reputation and experienced staff are a few of the many reasons that InsightRS is so excited about our future together.